The Terrible Truth
by Tygger3389
Summary: Dick, Wally, Barry, Artemis and Roy take an accidental trip with Bart back to his future and gain a little perspective on their young speedster friend. Rated T for up coming language and mentions of rape. Rating may go up. Spitfire. Speeddemon. Hints of Roy/Cheshire. Please Review.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing but the idea.**

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"The kid is lying." Wally pointed out the obvious, "He had other motives for coming here, motives we don't know. For all we know, he was working with Neutron and just trying to gain our trust so he can stab us in the back later!"

"Those are some pretty bold accusations," Barry frowned, "And a bit of a stretch."

"We don't know anything about him!" Wally growled, "We don't even know who he really is!"

Bart frowned, pressing his ear against the door. They didn't trust him. It was understandable, he was a stranger from the future with no real proof of his allegiances, but it still stung to hear Wally doubted him. Especially after all he'd done for them… well, done for their futures.

"He's my grandson," Barry reminded his nephew, "Your second cousin. How bad could he be? I'm sure he doesn't mean any harm."

"He may have already caused harm just by being here!" Wally countered, "He's changing the time stream!"

"That you know of," Dick jumped in, "For all we know, his history books say that he came back here."

"And the chances that that's true are about as good as the chances that he's not listening at the door," Bart barely had time to scoot back a foot before the door swung open and Wally glared down at him, "See!"

"I heard my name!" Bart protested, glaring back, "Don't you listen at doors when people talk about you?"

"No!" Wally lied, grabbing Bart's arm and pulling him into the room, "That's rude!"

"Easy Wally!" Barry frowned at his nephew's rough behaviour towards the boy, "Bart, why don't you take a seat."

There was a long pause before Bart finally slumped down in a near by chair, defeated, "Fine."

Dick, Wally, Barry, Artemis and Roy gathered around him, all expecting answers. Dick crossed his arms, "Okay kid, spill. Why are you here?"

"I'm just sight seeing!" He insisted, scowling at the dark haired young man. No way was he telling them the truth, not now anyways. Too much was at risk, he had too many people to save.

"Right!" Wally snapped, "Sight seeing in the past! Because that makes perfect sense!"

"Yeah, it does!" Bart growled, "I've already seen my time! I do get around fairly quickly, you know."

"Uh, Wally?" Artemis tried to get his attention.

"Well maybe you should see your time again!" Wally shouted over top of her, "Because you don't belong here!"

"I can't!" Bart rolled his eyes, "Duh! The time machine's broken."

"Something tells me you're not trying very hard to fix it!"

"Well maybe the future's not worth seeing!"

"Wally!" This time the red head turned and looked at his girlfriend, whom, along with the rest of his friends, was staring across the room at what appeared to be a gold, glowing crack in the air. it looked like stationary lightning and was without a doubt growing bigger as they watched, reaching outwards with wispy tendrils of light, "What's that?"

"I... I don't know?" Wally glanced back at Bart, who'd shrunk back in his chair, "Kid?"

Bart, who knew exactly what it was and who it came from, through the older boy an apologetic look, "Brace yourself..."

Before anyone could ask what he meant by his comment, the crack expanded to engulf the room in a flash of gold light. Bart felt the semi-familiar feeling of being pulled through time, as if someone had reached through his skin, grabbed his insides and was pulling him around by them. They landed in a grey world where ash rained from the darkened sky to the cold, lifeless ground. He coughed, his lungs readjusting to the smoggy air, and pushed himself up to a kneeling position as the heroes around him stumbled to their feet.

Barry looked around in horror, "Where are we? What is this place?"

Wally was staring at Bart, analyzing his defeated expression, "Bart?"

"This is were I come from. I told you," Bart slowly got back onto his feet, "I told you the future wasn't worth seeing."

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**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own nothing but the idea.**

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"This is the future?" Wally gaped, "This is what you were trying to protect?"

"Trying to change!" Bart snapped, there was no long a need for him to act the way he did in the past, he wasn't putting on a show anymore, "You think I consider this a place worth coming back to?"

Barry placed a hand on Bart's shoulder, trying to calm the boys, "What happened here? Why is the future like this?"

"If I knew that, I would have changed it already." Bart frowned, "That's what I was doing in the past, I was looking for the catalyst that caused all this. Apparently I didn't find it, which means we're not safe here."

"Not safe?" Artemis frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean if we're caught here, we'll be arrested and it won't take much for us to be deemed "heroes" and executed." Bart started off away from the beach of what the heroes were slowly recognizing as Happy Harbour, "Our best hope is to find Kid Flash and the others."

Wally looked surprised, "Kid Flash? Haven't I out grown that title yet?"

"You have." Bart frowned, "You assume I'm talking about you."

"There's a new Kid Flash?" Roy looked surprised, "Have we all been replaced then?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much." Bart shrugged, "Could you guys walk a little faster?"

The small group of past heroes jogged a little to catch up. Wally looked curious about this new Kid Flash, "So, uh, what's the new guy like? Does he live up to my standards?"

Bart ignored the questions beyond a funny little smirk, "Last I saw the others, they were a few block's that way in an abandoned building. With a little luck, they haven't moved."

"By others you mean other heroes, right?" Artemis wondered aloud.

"Heroes, refugees, kids," Bart shrugged, "Whatever you want to call them. Most adult heroes and anyone affiliated with them are gone now."

Barry looked alarmed, "And by gone you mean…?"

The young speedster didn't have time to answer before he was tackled by a blur of red and yellow, "Bart! Where the hell have you been, I've been worried sick!"

Wally stared at the newly arrived hero in shock. This was clearly the new Kid Flash, decked out in a modified version of his old costume, but there was one major difference between him and the new speedster, "Kid Flash is a girl!"

The girl turned to face him and shot him a look under her mask. She looked oddly familiar with her green-grey eyes, flaming red hair and a spray of slightly darker freckles speckling her almond skin. Her stance was defiant and full of attitude, arms crossed over her chest, chin up and out as she stared down her nose at Wally and the others, "Bart, what are they doing here?"

"They got pulled along with me when I came back!" He hurried to explain.

"Came back?" She gave him a sharp look, "What did you do?"

"I wanted to change things! To fix them!" The young boy babbled nervously, as if he'd been caught stealing cookies by his mother, "I wanted this world to be better for you and the others… but I failed. I'm sorry."

"Bart…" Her gaze softened, "What you've done was incredibly dangerous. There's no way you could have known what would happen if you changed the timeline."

Bart stared at the ground, looking small and child-like, "I could have saved you."

"No…" Both young speedsters froze as a siren sounded in the distance, waiting stiffly to hear if they got closer. Eventually the wailing faded and Kid Flash turned back to Bart and the others, "We can't stay here. It's not safe. Follow me."

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**Can a write a DC fanfiction without Irey West being in it? Pfft, apparently not! Please review!  
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	3. Chapter 3

**I own nothing but the idea.**

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Bart was quiet as they scurried along to where ever Kid Flash had deemed "safe", so quiet that it made Wally's skin crawl. He'd gotten so used to Bart's constant chatter and sunny disposition and now that the kid was being quiet and serious, like he'd wanted, it felt unnatural. If the younger boy noticed Wally's frequent, uncomfortable glances in his direction, he didn't show it, instead he followed the red haired girl without question at a normal, human pace so the non speedster could keep up.

As for where they were going, Wally couldn't say, it was terribly hard for him to get his barring when all the known landmarks were piles of rubble and ash. The whole Harbour looked like a war zone, littered with barbed wire and broken glass. He half considered asking Bart or their red haired guide, but both bore such frighteningly serious looks that he quickly changed his mind.

"Here," Kid Flash finally broke the silence, leading them down an alley way between two broken down buildings with the windows boarded up. Unlike the building next to it, the back door was intact, made of some sort of solid metal that echoed quite loudly when the girl knocked.

The creaking noise the door made was deafening in the quiet alley way and a small, mocha skinned girl of about fourteen poked her head out and smiled when she saw Bart was a part of their group. She opened the door wider to let them in, watching the past heroes curiously, her eyes darting to Kid Flash's face, "Did you find more refugees?"

"Not exactly," The red head shook her head, pulling her mask off. It was easier to size her up without the mask and, though she seemed to be in charge, she couldn't have been more then seventeen years old. She took the smaller girl under her arm, patting her curly hair with one hand, "Everyone, this is Nell. Nell, this is Barry, Dick, Wally, Barry, Artemis and Roy. Of course, you know Bart."

Nell stared at the heroes and especially Barry for a long moment, "Where'd you find an adult these days? Other then the police, they're practically extinct in these parts."

"Just stumbled across them," Kid Flash shrugged, "They're friends of Bart's. Why don't you run along and tell the others that I'm back…" She paused, "Bart, you join her, everyone's going to want to see you."

"Yes Mam," He nodded, sending Nell a small smile before heading off down the hall with her, leaving Wally and the others alone with the strange red haired girl.

"The rest of you, come with me." She ordered, leading them down a second hallway to a series of rooms, most of which were full of dust, bits of wall that had crumbled away and little else. One of the rooms had a small table, a few chairs and several maps with writing and markings on them. She took one of the chairs in the room, planting her feet on the seat and balancing on the back, "So your being here is a bit of a problem."

"Heh, just a bit," Barry agreed, "Bart got back to our time in some sort of pod. You wouldn't happen to have any more of those, would you…? Er, sorry, I never caught your name."

"Iris," She replied shortly, shaking her head, "Bart built that from spare parts, it was one of a kind. Never thought it would actually work or that he'd actually use it…"

"We should have assumed he would," The new voice came from a young man of about eighteen with dark hair, tanned skin and piercing blue eyes. He stood in the doorway for a second, regarding the past heroes coldly, before going to stand next to Iris' chair. He draped one of his thin, muscle arms around her narrow shoulders as if subtly asserting some sort of claim on her. "He is called 'Impulse' after all."

"Damian, you know he hasn't been like that for a long time now," She shook her head, frowning at no one in particular, "No, he was planning this for months."

There was a long pause where it became apparent that this "Damian" wasn't going to be introduced to the rest of the group. Dick took it upon himself to fix this oversight, offering the young man a handshake, "Hi, I'm Dick-"

"I know who you are, Grayson." Damian snapped, though his gaze was slightly less cold as he stared down the older man, "Everyone knows who you are… all of you."

"Question is," Iris frowned deeply, "What do we do with you?"

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**Yay Dami! I can never resist putting him and Iris in the same room together, I just love them so much! Please review!  
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